In the estuary, blackfish numbers have remained excellent with both breakwalls and Limeburners Creek having up plenty of solid fish over a kilo. Bream numbers are solid albeit with plenty of throwbacks, while flathead remain your best bet for consistent action with upstream around Rawdon Island fishing well. Reasonable numbers of good-sized whiting have also been taken with the lower section of the Maria down to around Blackmans Point producing best. Mud crabs remain active and are well worth chasing, with all usual haunts producing well.
North Beach is quite OK, Lighthouse has a fair amount of red weed while the beaches further south have fared much worse. But there are plenty of tailor about and with the bait schools likely to thicken up in coming weeks, the season looks promising. Bream numbers and quality are on the improve with a few reasonable bags taken from Lighthouse and North Beach, including fish over a kilo. Whiting have been a little quiet, a similar pattern to last year when April provided some of the best catches of the season. Jew numbers remain disappointing. Off the rocks, tailor numbers remain excellent for those out at dawn or dusk, while night anglers have been scoring increasing bags of well-conditioned bream. Lighthouse Beach has produced good numbers of both species, with several tailor of well over a kilo. A few longtail tuna are now around but close encounters far outweigh hook ups. Cobia numbers are excellent and certainly a viable target in proven locations on lures or live baits.
Offshore, following the southerlies of last week, some excellent snapper have been on offer with fish of 7.63kg and 6.25kg weighed by Julie Costmeyer and Andrew Nee. Up north, Trag Rock has produced a few kingfish while the wider reefs have some nice pearl perch to just under 4kg. We have had several reports of leatherjacket schools from the wider reefs, so it may pay to keep some wire on board. A few black marlin are still hanging about, while Barries Bay continues to hold excellent numbers of cobia to around 25 kilos and the very occasional Spanish mackerel.
Jason and Virginia Isaac, Ned Kelly’s Bait and Tackle 6583 8318 jasned@ozemail.com.au